Ransom for Justice
by The Assassin's Pen
Summary: Set after Human Revolution but before Mankind Divided. Adam, Malik, and David go back to Hengsha to scout out what's left of Tai Young. Segregation laws for augmented people have started to crop up and to top it all off there's someone very important and very powerful who wants revenge on Malik and will go to drastic lengths to get it. Rated for violence and torture. Adam whump.
1. Return to Hengsha

**Okay guys. New Deus Ex fanfic, not sure how long it'll be going for but I got this idea and just couldn't let it go. This is set between Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, and assumes an un doctored truth ending combined with a rigged self-destruct. Basically I've decided that no matter which button Adam pressed the whole thing was gonna go down. You should be able to read this on its own, but reading my other fics will help-especially the Rescue of Icarus. There are small things like bonus augments and things that I established there that I mention here. This fic also assumes that David, Pritchard, Malik, and Adam are all alive and relatively well at the end of Human Revolution. **

* * *

**Ransom for Justice**

_The Sentinel RX Health System is a combination implant that uses electro-cardio action, adrenal stimuli, and protein therapy to fight infection and injury through a limited 'regenerative' capacity. While it is no replacement for proper medical care, it can keep a user alive in the most critical of circumstances._

_A decentralized augmentation made up of several smaller units; the primary components are a series of hair-fine sensor probes connected to all the vital organs, providing real-time biomedical data to a central health monitor unit._

_This unit tracks the medical condition of the user and triggers secondary modules when it registers the incidence of critical damage through internal or external trauma; these modules are implanted in heart tissue, the lymphatic system and adrenal glands, and utilize micro-electric charges and phased-released chemicals to stimulate the human body's healing reaction_.

_The Sentinel RX Health System comes fitted as standard with an Implanted Cardioverter Defibrillator capable of restarting a human heart up to eighty times without requiring a recharge_.

-_Deus Ex Wiki_

The lights in the low room were harsh, flooding the subject and throwing everything else into deep shadow. Two figures stood in the room, one operating a camera, the other holding the wrapped end of a shard of metal. The prongs at its end sparked aggressively, reflecting like an electronic specter in the black glass of the welder's mask he wore.

The camera was trained on a figure lying strapped to an inclined table, and the cameraman was panning in close on the victim's bloodied face. The man was conscious, but only just, his one visible eye spitting as much venom as possible at his captors. He refused to look into the camera. Blood flowed slowly from the seam under his optical augment, the fragments of his broken lens jutting out like teeth. His other eye was obscured completely by the cracked surface of yellow-glossed glass.

"This is what happens, when you strip away inhibitions," the man with the taser said, his voice sharp, his Chinese reverberating in the small room and causing his victim to flinch. "I hope your revenge was worth it. Worth your peace. Worth this man's life," he said, pointing. "Because his blood, his needless death, is on your hands, Faridah Malik."

He turned jabbing the taser sharply into Adam's side, amping up the voltage as the cyborg arched against his bonds, the metal scraping against his augments making a horrible sound. He clenched his teeth and refused to scream. Every fiber in his body pulled taught, electricity arching between the ports in his chest, running down his arms. It laced his fingers like living creatures, causing his augments to spasm. The torturer looked into the camera and flipped a switch on the taser, driving it harshly into Adam's sternum. His force was so sudden Adam couldn't arch against it and in seconds the tension left his body as the line ran flat on the vital monitor behind his head.

The cameraman panned in closer, fixing his film on the blank stare of Adam's open eye where the lenses were shifting spasmodically, thrown into a dead chaos by the residual electricity.

**Two Days Earlier**

"I've re-encoded your passport so we should be good to go. Just double check with Malik while I crosscheck these files," David said, turning in his chair and tapping away at his keyboard.

Adam glanced down at the modified passport, turning it in the light and watching the metallic LAI flash. LAI. As in "Legally Augmented Individual." He almost snorted, the glint of his newly machined skin competing with the garish stamp. He doubted that even half of his experimental implants were actually or would ever be legal. His prosthetics had taken more than a few hits on Panchaea, and David had insisted on company dollar to get Adam almost completely worked over. He wasn't sure how he felt about the high-gloss look, but there were new laws emerging that made things like matte skin for augmentations borderline illegal. Apparently the matte qualities of some augmentations were being seen as "weapon concealment" by some individuals.

For Adam, his augments were classified on the straining edge of the law, and that was only after a lot of documentation modification and encoding by Pritchard. Adam was under strict orders from Sarif not to use the Typhoon or cloak unless he absolutely had to and was sure he wouldn't be seen. The cloak in conjunction with Adam's weaponry had become illegal in twelve countries, and the Typhoon had been flat out banned by the few who knew about it in higher government. Adam couldn't even have the Typhoon removed at that point—no-one qualified to would touch him. David had helped Pritchard forge documentation and even footage that made it look like Adam's illegal augments had been shut down, but everything was still very, very intact. To help him compensate in the field, David had invented, drawn up, machined, and then installed several new "borderline" augments. Only Adam, Pritchard, and David knew he had them.

"Think of it this way," David had said, bending over Adam's deactivated hand. He had the plating on the back splayed open like living skin and he was wiring stun circuitry into the knuckles. "There's a lot of grey area in the law concerning weaponized augmentation right now. We need to outfit you with everything possible before the grey area becomes black and white. Once you have it the laws ordering you to get rid of it are going to be much harder to make and enforce. Especially when they're classified non-lethal. As long as you stay at this company I'll be able to offer you an extra layer of legal protection."

Adam had only nodded, watching as his boss poked around between mechanical tendons, soldering tiny lines of wire and code together. He hadn't taken David's comment about working for him as a threat because he knew it wasn't one. They'd made peace with each other after Panchaea, and though Adam hadn't done what David wanted and spun the news, David still seemed fond of him. He was saying what he did as a genuine offer, the concern for Adam showing between his brows as he concentrated on his work. David was facing immense heat for being the head of an implant company, but Adam faced the more brutal, physical side of it every time he left the building.

Sometimes it was easy to forget how much David knew about the augmentations Adam lived with. He'd designed half of them himself, and as David had once pointed out it was impossible to upgrade a system until you understood the system perfectly. David had several degrees in medicine to top off his engineering and business degrees, which meant that he was more qualified than most LIMB clinic doctors to work on Adam's prosthetics and even what was left of Adam himself.

Along with the knuckle tasers and a new set of charges in his lower spine to aid his Icarus augment, David had fixed the bugs with his Siren Lock. "Just in case. Heaven forbid you ever need it again, but just in case," he'd said, gently inserting a calibration needle into the Siren Lock's main processor, located just below Adam's voice box. He grit his teeth and closed his fist, just wanting the procedure over with.

He strode down the halls of Sarif industries, his new coat unfamiliar and snug on his shoulders. His old one had burned when the VTOL had gone down in Hengsha, and though Adam hadn't cared at all about the coat over his relief that Malik was alive, Malik had felt so badly about it she'd bought him a new one. It had been custom made for him, hooks in the sleeves sensing the movements of his augments and adjusting to give him easy access to several of their features.

He rolled his shoulders and tried not to dwell on the fact that he had an empty building to worry about. Most of the scientists were still there, as they didn't have anywhere else and David had promised to hold onto the company no matter what. Sarif was the most stable job for augmentation scientists in the world at the moment. Private security however, was in high demand all over. People afraid of augmented citizens, augmented citizens afraid of people—everyone had suddenly scraped together extra cash for private bodyguards and extra security locks. Pritchard had upgraded Adam's hacking software in response, but that didn't stop half of his security force from bailing on Sarif for more promising prospects.

He sighed. At least he knew the remaining guys were loyal. The problem was he still had over two-hundred elite scientists and David to protect, not to mention clerical staff, maintenance, engineering, and basic manufacturing personnel. He was good but he was still only one man. He needed more guys, and those who were applying defined shady.

He retracted his glasses, rubbing at his eyes as he waited for the elevator to ding. It was almost good that they had a meeting with Tai Young in upper Hengsha. It gave him something else to focus on, something simpler than worrying over application emails. It was supposed to be low-profile, a courtesy visit from one CEO to another to show good will in the augmentation world. David was going to scope out his new competition since a young woman named Lin Xu had taken over after the previous CEO had declared ties with the Illuminati and gone down with Panchaea. There wasn't much left of Tai Young, but David wanted to keep an eye on them anyway.

He went through the doors and past the empty cafeteria, heading for the helipad where Malik was underneath her VTOL. He crouched, balancing his forearms on his knees and cocking his head so he could look at her better.

"Boss wanted me to check in. Everything ready?"

Malik wiped her forehead with the back of her sleeve and slammed a maintenance hatch shut, wriggling out from under the aircraft and sitting up. She looked tired, and Adam couldn't blame her. Ever since the boss had announced a return to Hengsha he'd been on edge to the point of nightmares. He imagined Malik had it even worse. After all, he wasn't the one who'd nearly died. Not that time at least.

"I can hire another pilot," David had insisted, standing with Malik in her office, Jensen close at his side. "Just temporarily of course, you'll be my first choice always."

"No way." Malik shook her head, her arms crossed resolutely. Adam could see the fear in her tension, but he knew this was not up to him. "I'm the best you've got and you know it. They didn't get me last time, and they won't get me this time. I'm not bailing on this company, David. I'm here as long as you want me."

Jensen read "as long as you want me" as "as long as the company is here", but David had only graced her with a rare soft smile and had hugged her. His boss wasn't always so affectionate, but David did try to run Sarif like a family and lately everyone was walking out. He could only guess at how important it was to the CEO that he, Malik, and Pritchard were still there. Aside from his sister, Adam didn't think David had a family anymore.

"Yeah." She tucked a rag into her pocket and reached a hand up. Adam grasped it and helped her to her feet. "We should be good to go. I have that EMP shield all wired up, just in case." She stood to the side, gesturing to the VTOL. "You mind testing it for me?"

"My new hardware isn't as powerful as what brought us down last time, Malik," Adam said softly. "It couldn't be or I'd risk frying my own systems. My electric shielding is good, but it only goes so far."

She shrugged. "Give it your best shot. Make me feel better. I know what you have can take down a box droid, so that at least has to give this shield a run for its money."

Adam shrugged, adjusting his stance and raising both fists, the charges popping up from each knuckle, crackling eagerly. He mentally commanded the charge to be lethal and fired it off. Two balls of blue lightning spiraled together and hit the VTOL near one of the command boards. The lights on the plane flickered briefly, but the electricity dispersed and everything remained brightly lit. Malik nodded, her smile not quite as sure as Adam wanted it to be.

"See?" she knocked his shoulder lightly with hers. "Just fine. Tell the boss if he keeps worrying like this he's going to have to invent an augment that stitches up ulcers."

"He probably already has one," Adam said, adjusting his supply pack and mentally going through what he had and what was hidden. When they declared at Tai Young it would be important for him to remember to mention his tranq gun and flash grenades, but not his two-pack of Typhoon ammo. His heart was beating too fast and he swallowed, turning as he heard his boss approach. He had a bad feeling about all of this—a feeling he hadn't experienced since the alarms had gone off a good year and a half prior when Namir and his terrorists had changed everything. It was difficult to imagine a trip back to Hengsha that _wasn't _destined to go south. So very much had tanked before, and there were people worse than Belltower on those streets this time. He was grateful they'd be spending minimal time in lower Hengsha. At least in the upper city they tried to keep the hostility under the rug.

"Ready to go?" David said, his voice chipper like they were headed for vacation. Adam tried to ignore the lines of the bullet-proof vest under David's shirt and only nodded.

"Malik says we're good to go."

"Fantastic. Let's fire her up."

The ride to Hengsha was supposed to be a chance for Adam and David to get some sleep. Neither one did. They spent the ride in silence, Adam playing and re-playing the plans in his head over a billion times.

Tai Young was supposed to meet them at the helipad with their own security escort. Malik was supposed to take half of said escort to get fuel for the VTOL and then lock herself back inside it, trusting the patrol to stand guard as long as the meeting lasted. Adam and David would be taken to Tai Young's main building where they'd be escorted into upper Hengsha to the penthouse that Adam seriously hoped the new CEO had re-decorated. If he never saw those red sculptures and haughty doors it'd be too soon. He re-played the layout of the penthouse in his head, using his eidetic memory and ignoring the prompt on his HUD offering an actual visual. It wasn't that he didn't trust the schematics that Pritchard had uploaded, it was just that he wanted to keep his memory eidetic and he was pretty sure there were a few escape routes he'd discovered that Pritchard hadn't. After all, Pritchard hadn't known about the bloody panic room last time and look where that had gotten him.

He sat back, chewing on the bland piece of a Cyberboost bar, flicking up his diagnostics screen like a nervous green thumb on his first mission, checking and re-checking that his batteries were holding charge properly and that his new augments were humming and ready in the background.

"Approaching location gentlemen, buckle up," Malik said cheerfully, though Adam could hear the wariness in her tone. It was subtle, barely there, but he knew her too well. He leaned back and blinked away his diagnostic hub, clicking his glasses closed and resting his hands in his lap where he could feel one of the flash grenades in his pocket. He glanced across at David, but the CEO wasn't paying attention. He was leaning towards the window, staring out at the layered city with a critical eye, like he was sizing it up.

The first part of things went as planned. Tai Young was on time. Malik took three guards towards the maintenance station to retrieve things for the VTOL, and Adam reluctantly left her with them, following David off the helipad. David was in full charismatic mode, chatting and even joking with the escort in fluent Chinese. Adam didn't try to hide his suspicion. He merely walked a pace behind David, glasses drawn, body tensed up for anything.

The penthouse hadn't been changed, and Adam glared around at the scenery from behind his shades. That was the last thing he needed. Flashbacks to that Illuminati snake all over him. He was still pissed that he hadn't seen the panic room coming. What exactly was his CASIE mod good for anyway?

The conversation between David and Lin Xu went smoothly, and the two corporate giants bowed and shook hands before parting. Adam could tell from the bounce in his boss' step that compared to Tai Young, Sarif was in its golden age. He almost felt sorry for the doomed woman.

The escort back was when it all went apart. One second they were fine, heading down one of the back-alleys unfortunately needed to get to their checkpoint, the next every single Tai Young officer just _dropped. _Adam froze, sleeves retracting as he moved to stand in front of David, trying to suss out what had just happened. The heavy smell and low-pitched tone of a massive EMP field hit Adam's senses and he felt the augmented shielding in his body push back against it. Out of the entire escort he and David were the only ones protected.

He felt David's hand on his shoulder but before the CEO could say anything five heavily augmented men appeared out of the air, their cloaks pixelating away with an electronic buzzing. Adam immediately drew his flash grenade, but one of the men got close to him and knocked it out of his hand. Adam grit his teeth and fought back, blocking the attack and ducking down before swinging a powerful kick into the man's ribs. He went down hard and a notification on Adam's HUD informed him that the man was out cold.

Adam spun, watching as David ducked to give his security chief more room to move. He wasn't idle though, he'd thrown a lightning punch into the knee of the nearest attacker with his augmented arm and a satisfying crunch accompanied the fall. Just when Adam though he'd made progress, more men melted out of the shadows, and it was with a start that Adam realized they were focused on him, not David. They were trying to use lethal force towards David, but non-lethal towards him. Their goal was not the head of Sarif at all.

"Get down," Adam commanded, straightening up and throwing his arms out, directing the force in his Icarus' core out through his limbs. In a blast of golden light the energy discharged, throwing several men against the wall, but not before a heavy tranq dart buried itself into Adam's exposed neck. He felt the heat of the suppressant burn through his throat and up into his head, and he knew they'd hit his carotid. There was no way his Sentinel system could clear it out and keep him awake, not with his pounding heart and raging adrenaline to spike it all through his limited body. He knew with a drop of ice in his gut that they were going to be captured.

Turning to David, Adam braced his hand against the CEO's shoulder. "Sorry, boss," he said, throwing a measured punch into David's face. He bent over the fallen body, his implants scanning frantically for damage. David was alive, knocked out, and had a broken nose and fractured eye-socket. Everything else seemed intact. Adam scrambled to David's side, ripping up Sarif's sleeve and unsheathing one of his arm blades, raising it with careful precision over David's silver arm. With a quick, downward plunge he severed the glittering metal in one blow, throwing the arm off towards a pile of trash where it sunk into the refuse. His vision was swimming by the time he finished, the tranquilizer winning out against his adrenaline. His heart had turned to heavy, uneven thuds in his breast, and he lost the strength and will to hold himself upright. He slumped across David's body, the unpleasant shocks of his Sentinel system arching through his ribs in an effort to keep his heart steady.

Whatever they'd tranqued him with, it certainly wasn't legal and they'd probably assumed he had more flesh than he actually did to distribute it. The last thing he heard before blacking out completely was the muttered discussion from a few of their attackers about what to do with David.


	2. Under Duress

**Hey guys! Thank you for the follows! Please enjoy chapter two, and if you feel so inclined I love getting feedback! I'm still so not sure how long this is gonna go for, but it's gonna be pretty long. EDIT: I am dedicated to my whump being as accurate as possible within the realm of the world I'm playing in. Therefore Adam's heart-stop scene has been adjusted. Thanks!**

* * *

When Adam woke up he was strapped to a table, the cold of the metal biting into his bare back. He must not have been there for very long. They'd left his pants on, but that was it. His boots, his gear, everything else was gone, and the heavy roiling of an EMP field pressed aggressively against his shielding. He could feel the generator somewhere near the small of his back and he jerked, gritting his teeth as his prosthetics shot pain signals into his brain. He was clamped down _tight_. He looked around, trying to get his bearings. His HUD kept flickering spasmodically as the varying EMP messed with his shielding, so he retracted his glasses and blinked hazily. His vision was still blurred from the tranquilizer.

Adam lifted his head, his muscles aching as he finally managed to make some sense of his surroundings. He was in a small, harshly lit room and there was a camera pointed at him. All the light was artificial, so he had no real sense of how long he'd been out for or what time of day it was. He swallowed, debating his options. The EMP field hadn't breached his defenses yet, but if the people in charge of the whole operation kept messing with it and deprived him of food, as he was sure they would, then he could end up vulnerable. The plus side of organic to energy convertors in his digestive system was that he didn't have to plug in like some kind of robot. The negative side was that if he was starved, malnourished, or lost a lot of blood his augments slowed down along with the rest of his body. Malik made fun of him for the Cyberboost bars and cereal, but the bars were vital surges of highly concentrated vitamins and proteins, and he could eat three bowls of cereal in the time it took to leave the house for Thai.

"He's awake."

"Good. Have you locked her frequency?"

"Yes, patching through now. She should be back to her craft by now and her signals should be open. They've been gone long enough."

Chinese. They hadn't gotten far then, they were probably still in the pits of lower Hengsha. Adam tried to look groggier than he felt in the hope that it might give him an edge should either one of the men try something. One, the man with the camera, was heavily augmented. His knee was tightly wrapped and Adam noted with some satisfaction that he limped when he moved. David had cracked him pretty good. The other man was only augmented in one eye. He adjusted a tray of syringes and other nasty-looking tools before turning and facing Adam. When he spoke, his English was almost as good as his Chinese. An international LIMB clinic doctor then.

"Hello. Good to see you're awake. We were afraid for a while that we misjudged your dose," he said, one eyebrow raised as he pulled a monitor around and began threading leads from it. The doctor didn't sound like he'd been worried at all. "We could have done our work with a dead body, of course, but I think our antagonistic friend will get the message so much clearer if she sees you die first—don't you agree?"

Adam grit his jaw, jerking away as much as he could as the doctor's cold hands pressed the sensor leads to his chest. There was no pain, just the sudden blipping of a cardiac and oxygen monitor that was just out of Adam's line of sight. The doctor reached behind Adam's head and clicked the monitor to silent.

"What do you want with me?" Adam asked finally, choosing his words carefully. He didn't want to give away anything that might put him or David, if he was alive, in more danger.

"Oh, this is nothing to do with me. I just work for him," the doctor said, turning dials and taking notes. His stance was far too casual, and Jensen took notice. The more relaxed they were, the more change he had at getting out. They thought he was completely neutralized. If he could figure out a way to slip that restraint they'd be down before they realized he'd twitched a muscle.

"It's just business Mr…." he flipped a notepad over, pulling out Adam's passport and holding it up to the light. "Jensen." He looked up with a stiff smile, patting Adam's cheek. Adam grit his teeth and jerked his head away. "Do not take it personally, please. I have a living to make, just like you. And unfortunately a stint you pulled during one of your previous visits has jeopardized that living."

"Yeah, criminal activity tends to get interrupted around me. Sorry for the inconvenience."

"I should have known you'd be one with a sense of humor," he said mildly, flicking at a syringe. Adam didn't let himself tense up. He wasn't going to show any kind of fear. "After what you did to the Hive."

Adam's brows drew together and he tried to think. He'd done a lot at the Hive—to the Hive. He'd guess at first that this was Tong's doing, but neither man looked like a Harvester and the last time Adam had been in contact with Tong they were square. They were far from liking each other, but this just wasn't Tong's style. If Tong wanted revenge on Adam, he would have had him killed and then proudly sported his augments, or maybe mounted them on his office wall like a trophy. Adam just couldn't imagine Tong as a torturer.

"You'll have to jog my memory," Adam said, fisting his hands up and turning his wrists against the restraints. The sharp metal cut into the sensors of his dermal plating and Adam could feel one of the coolant hoses straining.

"No need," the doctor said, turning to the camera as the sudden static of a radio link filled the room. It sounded like there were two speakers behind the camera, and in moments the bright flash of holographic projectors called up a partial image. "Ask her why you're here."

Adam's eyebrows shot up as the image of Malik was projected behind the camera. Her expression was puzzled at first, and she was leaning forward, probably fiddling with controls on the VTOL. When the augmented man clicked on the camera Malik gasped and jumped back a little. "Adam?"

Her incredulous voice almost echoed in the room. "What happened to you? You've been gone for hours—where's"

He shook his head before she could continue, pressing his lips together and trying to send her a silent message. _They don't know who he is, don't let them know_.

She swallowed, color draining from her face as her eyes flit over his restrained form. The doctor stepped up so that Malik could see him as well, and as he talked he worked a set of brass knuckles onto his hand, running his thumb over the heavy curves like they were helping him think.

"Hello, Faridah."

"Who are you?" Malik demanded, her voice angry. "What do you want? A ransom?"

"Oh no, nothing like that," the doctor said, glancing back at Adam. "My name is Doctor Wen, Ms. Malik. I work for someone I think you may be familiar with—a Mr. Lee Hong?"

Malik's eyes went hard and Adam could see her jaw clench. "No way that little brat has this kind of influence from prison. What do you really want?"

"Oh, Lee Jr. is indeed in prison, and clearly not intelligent to orchestrate anything from there. No, this is Lee Hong Sr. You see, your stint with the hack at the Hive may have cost Lee Jr. his freedom, but it cost Lee Sr. quite a lot of money. His reputation and family have been disgraced, and that means his inhibitions are down. He knew it was only a matter of time before you were destined to return to Hengsha—it's merely a stroke of luck that you came with your attack dog as well." Wen smiled impishly, patting Adam's chest. Adam jerked, nostrils flaring as he fought back the pain. He'd done some serious straining in his lower augments and the locks on the table still hadn't budged.

"Adam has nothing to do with this," Malik said stiffly. "He was a tool, nothing more. I disgraced Hong, I hacked into the Hive. Tell me where you are and I'll turn myself in."

"A very nice try, Ms. Malik, but Mr. Hong was very specific. Mr. Jensen here was seen at the club. He's recognized as the one who exposed Lee's indiscretion. How would it look to the public if Mr. Hong let Adam here walk free? No, what you're going to do, Ms. Malik, is come here and beg. You will come here and maybe, maybe we can convince Hong to let Adam off with a warning." He held up the syringe, depressing the plunger a little so that a spurt of foul-smelling liquid glittered in the studio lights.

"Leave me Malik," Adam said, glancing up at Wen, who was slowly placing the syringe back down. "Get out of here and get back to Detroit."

"Oh yes, you could do that. But then Mr. Jensen here, and the man we found with him, will certainly die. And you'll never be able to set foot outside of Detroit again. Mr. Hong gives you his personal guarantee that if you run now, you will never be able to stop running."

"Ignore him Malik!" Adam said desperately, the anger roiling his voice. "He can't have that much reach, just get out of here and don't look back."

Malik shook her head, swallowing visibly. "He can, Adam. He does. Why do you think he was able to cover up that murder for so long? Lee has ties in Belltower and LIMB, and with all the anti-augmentation hype he's only gotten more dangerous. I have to do this." She shifted her gaze onto Wen, her shoulders squared. "Where are you?"

"I'll leave that up to you to figure out," Wen said mildly, adjusting the brass knuckles. "I'll leave this broadcasting, and with any luck you can hack the signal and trace it back to us." He smiled, turning and throwing a hard punch into the side of Adam's head. There was a sickening crack.

"Adam!" Malik cried out before she could help herself. Wen turned back around, casually wiping blood off of the gold metal. Behind him Adam was breathing heavy, blood dripping from around his damaged optical augment. The metal was too soundly embedded into Adam's skull to come loose without surgical damage, but the pressure had torn the long healed skin just under it. Adam sneered, clicking his shades closed, sizing up every last bit of data he could on the doctor.

"Just don't try and call for any help. We're monitoring your every move. You even utter the word "help" and…well." He shrugged, turning back and nailing Adam again, this time aiming for the glass over his right eye. Adam let out a growl of pain as the high-impact glass shattered, leaving nothing but the uneven shards wedged into their base. He could feel blood seep from his brow and into his eye.

Malik's entire frame was tense with fury, but she said nothing else. She turned away from the feed and the last thing Adam heard before the needle plunged into his neck was the rapid-fire clicking of Malik's VTOL control board.

"Adam, son."

He was aware of David's voice, recognized it even through the distortion caused by his grogginess, but he couldn't move yet. They'd hit him with another massive dose of that tranq, and all he could do was groan as the cardioverter tucked near his heart sent another shock lacing through him—temporarily stopping his heart in an effort to get the tired organ to remember how to beat properly. He was laying face down on a cold floor and he arched his back weakly, trying to get up. He felt David's hand on him, pulling with a surprising amount of strength until Adam stumbled and collapsed onto a cot of some kind. He felt David's hand leave his shoulder and then fingers pressed gently into his throat. That's when he managed to open his eyes finally. He blinked, David coming into a sickeningly unsteady focus. Adam had never seen his boss look so worried, though it was difficult to really tell because the breaks he'd inflicted were so swollen.

"Your pulse is leveling out, though I'm worried about how slow your Sentinel is filtering this stuff out of your system," David told him, resting his hand on Adam's collarbone. Adam blinked, swallowing.

"Malik's coming," he managed.

"You were able to contact her?"

He shook his head and winced, swallowing back some of the pain. It wasn't as severe as earlier, but his head was throbbing and he knew there was only so much his sentinel could do without extra power.

"They contacted her. They want to punish her, and me. For exposing Lee Hong as a murderer…" he coughed wetly, turning on his side as he spit up blood. David's expression only grew more worried and he helped hold Adam steady as he trembled.

"They still haven't figured out who I am," David said quietly, rubbing Adam's back and helping him sit back as much as he could with only one arm to work with. "It was good thinking on your part, taking away my two most recognizable features, but I wish you could have warned me a bit first." There was an attempt at teasing in his tone, but it was overshadowed by worry. "I'm probably going to have to have my eye-socket reconstructed if I'm going to keep my charm. And the engraving on that arm cost half a fortune, shame we couldn't have salvaged it. You did your job a little too well."

"Didn't know why they wanted us, but I figured out in the middle of the attack that they weren't after you. Figured I'd do what I could to keep them from realizing they have a bigger bargaining chip," Adam managed, laying back and praying that his Sentinel would do _something_. With the way his chest and torso hurt they must have beat him while he was unconscious and then thrown him unceremoniously into the cell with David.

"Well you managed that, though I'm not sure what they could get out of me at this point—other than forcing me to fork what's left of the company over."

"You've still got influence boss," Adam said roughly, feeling exhausted but needing to think, needing to plan on how to get them out before Faridah showed up.

David sighed. "Not like I used to. At this point Sarif'll be lucky if I can keep it afloat for another five years."

Adam looked at David, incredulous. This wasn't like his boss at all. "Hey, these laws won't stop augmentation all together. It's too much a part of our culture. Tai Young isn't going to make it, but I know you, David. You'll die before letting Sarif go under completely."

"I may not have a choice, Adam. The company's biggest investment is now illegal. Even the defense contracts we had are shying away, trying to find early ways out. The army's facing an astounding amount of heat for packing augmented soldiers, and it's all coming back on me. No matter how many press conferences I host to explain that we aren't making super soldiers, headlines about the army, or the Illuminati are undermining my every word." He dropped his head into his hand, rubbing at one of the only un-swollen spots. "I didn't want to tell you. Not like this, but I poured the last of Sarif's lifeblood into you, Adam." He glanced up, the one eye he could still open creased with pain. "The company doesn't have much left. After Sarif goes under I know you'll keep going, keep moving to set things right where no-one else will go. I hoped that outfitting you with everything I had left would give you a better shot. Someone's gotta be equipped to handle what's coming, Adam. I wouldn't feel safe with that tech in anyone else's hands."

Adam swallowed, trying to process what David was telling him. He really had given up. David Sarif never gave up. David reached out, placing a hand on Adam's shoulder.

"Don't worry about me, son. Don't worry about any of this. Just lie still for a while and I'll see if I can get that LIMB traitor to get me some diagnostic equipment. He clearly doesn't know what he's doing when it comes to hardware like yours and they clearly want you alive. I might be able to make you more comfortable. You took quite a beating and your Sentinel must be running low on power or you wouldn't be taking this long to heal. I hope it wasn't damaged…"

"There was a pretty high-res EMP field under the table they had me on," Adam said. "It's possible that they drained my batteries through my shielding."

"That would be a better scenario than damage to the Sentinel, so let's hope. The least they can do is give you some water."

"Don't push it, boss. They want to punish me and Malik—letting us out of here alive isn't their priority at all. They know Malik's coming one way or another, and they can punish her just as well with my dead body as they can with keeping me alive."

David paused, his back to Adam, his hand on his hip as he faced the cell door. His head ducked and his shoulders were slumping. "Adam," he said quietly "I've seen torture before. It's something I will never, ever forget or ever fully heal from. If Malik gets here and finds your body—it'll be bad. She'll grieve you, she'll be heartbroken. But if she has to keep on watching them torture you—" David glanced back over his shoulder, his eye earnest. "It'll break her. She'll never escape your screams for the rest of her life. For all our sakes, we're doing everything we can to get out of here, and right now getting you some help is our best bet. So…just lie still, all right?"

Adam swallowed and nodded.

Almost three hours later David had finally convinced the LIMB doctor to allow him one diagnostic pad and a glass of water for Adam. David grimaced as he carried the dated tech back to Adam, who was blinking back the light doze he'd managed. He hurt, but he no longer felt groggy and his muscles were no sorer than they would have been after a hard day at work.

"The Sentinel is working, just not as quickly as I'd like it to," Adam said, sitting up and leaning his back against the cold wall. His skin shivered in protest but he just adjusted his position and sat quietly as David sat next to him.

"Yeah, that's good but I still need to run tests—see if there's a power leak or if the tranquilizer is what did it. Sorry about this, but they've got some pretty ancient tech here—no scanners. Just needles."

Adam nodded, bracing himself as David pulled out the long, sharp edge of a silver needle laced with gold circuitry. David tucked the needle between two fingers so it was out of the way and then traced down Adam's sternum, measuring in his head.

"Okay, you'll have to brace yourself since I don't have another hand to keep you from jerking."

Another curt nod and Sarif swiftly drove the needle between two ribs, just left of Adam's heart. Jensen sucked in a breath and his hands clenched, but he managed to keep still.

"Sorry, son," David apologized quietly, settling the pad on his knee and scrolling through it. He hummed, his fingers brushing against each other nervously as he read. Adam shifted carefully, reaching for the bottle of water. It wasn't until he began drinking it down that he realized how dehydrated he was.

"I'm running some secondary diagnostics that will take a few minutes to process," Sarif said, setting the pad to the side and massaging the back of his neck. "Just try not to move, that needle is right next to your heart."

"Great. Not the first time I've had someone just stab me there without warning," Adam muttered, tossing the empty bottle onto the thin sheet.

"Well, stashing tech in the chest-cavity might be risky but it's also practical. There's not much room in the human body to add things to begin with—and lining the ribcage with tech means your natural armor can protect the augments right along with your organs. This is part of the reason home-maintenance with early augmentation experiments went so badly and now there are laws against it—if you don't know what you're doing it's easy to put yourself under. LIMB clinics largely sprung up as a result of home care laws and insistence that augmented people have pre and post-surgical counseling."

Adam was listening, but he didn't comment. He knew David was talking because he was worried and that was how he handled things. It had probably been a long time since David had had to be in a hands-on situation rather than a corporate verbal battle. All things considered he was working remarkably well with only one arm and no real chance of escape.

"Good news is you were right, the Sentinel is intact," David said, jolting Adam out of another near doze. The CEO didn't miss Adam's violent reaction and he looked up, pressing his lips together. "Just a little longer, then I'll remove the needle and you can sleep, okay son? You're suffering from a pretty massive energy drain so sleep is probably the best thing you can do right now. Whatever was in that tranq was designed to do more than knock you out. It put your body in a state of hyper alert and used your augmentations against you. Now you're running on empty."

"Wonderful. I missed living on the edge. Things have been too quiet lately," Adam quipped, gritting his teeth as David reached forward and slid the needle out. He pressed his palm against the puncture and lay back down, closing his eyes. He could feel David watching him.

"Lucky for you you've got pretty exceptional power reserves, and the latest bio-conversion on the planet. You're not going to feel great but the energy drain won't kill you either."

"Best news so far," Adam muttered.

Malik had been scrambling to crack their code for hours, desperate to find Adam and David before it was too late. Every time she managed to focus a flash of that room came back to her and all she could think about was how bloodied Adam had looked. She sat down in the back of the VTOL, trembling, trying to get her tears under control. At first she'd been furious, then she'd been worried, then back to furious, and then everything pile on top of her and she just felt helpless. She wasn't the hacker—Pritchard was. Adam was by proxy. They clearly thought she'd pulled off more of the Hive hack by herself than she actually had, and now Adam and David were going to die for it. She buried her head in her hands.

"I'm so sorry spy boy," she whispered. Her throat ached with weariness and she threaded her fingers through her short hair, tugging gently. She took in a shaky sigh and looked up. She'd muted the video feed, but there was movement again for the first time since the first transmission. She scrambled to her feet and stumbled over to the console, slamming her palm into the mute button.

"This is what happens, when you strip away inhibitions," Wen said, brandishing a modified taser. His Chinese reverberated in the small room and Malik felt her heart crack when Adam flinched. "I hope your revenge was worth it. Worth your peace. Worth this man's life," he said, pointing. "Because his blood, his needless death, is on your hands, Faridah Malik."

Malik's cry stuck in her throat and she grabbed uselessly at the monitor as Wen drove the taser sharply into Adam's side, amping up the voltage as the cyborg arched against his bonds. The metal scraping against Adam's wrists and ankles made a horrible sound like shrieking steel. Electricity arched between the ports in his chest and ran down his arms, lacing his fingers like living creatures.

Faridah covered her mouth with her hand, tears standing in her eyes as she watched, her eyes darting between Adam's agonized expression and the chaos of jagged peaks above his head where the monitor recorded what was left of his heartbeat.

Doctor Wen looked into the camera and flipped a switch on the taser, meeting Malik's eyes. She shook her head, felt herself plead, right before Wen turned and plunged the prongs harshly into Adam's sternum. His force was so sudden Adam couldn't arch against it and in seconds the tension left his body as the line ran flat on the vital monitor behind his head.

The cameraman panned in closer, fixing his film on the blank stare of Adam's open eye where the lenses were shifting spasmodically, thrown into a dead chaos by the residual electricity, and Malik felt her own heart stop. There was a harsh jerk on the monitor as Wen re-adjusted the camera so that both he and Adam's body where visible.

"Do you want to know the best part, Faridah Malik?" Wen asked nastily, turning his body to the side so that the garish green of the flat line was fully visible. He went forward, slowly lifted a syringe from the tray, and squirted some of the contents into the empty air. He flicked it a few times and then slid the needle into a vein near Adam's collarbone. Carefully, almost tenderly, he laced his fingers together and performed ten quick compressions against Adam's breastbone. He glanced at the camera, then back at Adam's body. There was a jostle as he detached the camera from its stand and carried it over to the table, panning it slowly over Adam's still body until all Malik could see was the top of his head down to his shoulders. She stifled her sobs, choking back fury and grief and guilt in a bitter cocktail.

She tried to look away from Adam's empty gaze but she couldn't. The twitching of his lenses had stopped, leaving his eyes completely dead, his head tilted at an angle, evidence of how he'd been gasping for his last breath. Suddenly there was a whir and the lens in Adam's eye retracted sharply, making his pupil a crazed pinprick. His shoulders jerked back and he gasped, and when he blinked and turned his head weakly, Malik could see there was still intelligence, still life behind his eyes. She choked, gasping as she pressed her hand to her chest. Wen turned the camera back on his own face, Adam's steadying vitals ticking once again across the screen behind him.

"The best part is that Mr. Jensen here has been outfitted with a cardioverter. It is capable on one charge of re-starting the human heart up to eighty times, so long as that heart still wants to beat. A little epinephrine, a little help, and if his heart is in any kind of rhythm at all the cardioverter will stimulate it back into one that will keep him alive. So I can keep on killing him, and each time as long as I do not breach his body or damage the structural integrity of his inner organs to do it he'll come back. Weaker each time, with more chance of heart damage each time, but he'll come back. His heart may withstand being shocked and stopped over and over, but his spirit won't. And every time he dies there's more chance that it will take more to bring him back. That's precious seconds his brain goes without oxygen. Tell me, Ms. Faridah, how much of Adam's mind do you think will be left by the time you reach him?"

Malik flattened her hand against the screen, wanting to gather Adam up and take him away from everything, wishing she could turn his head towards her so she could make absolutely sure that he wasn't already damaged, that he knew who he was and who she was. She shuddered back another breath when something on the edge of the camera's focus caught her attention. All at once the fury roiled back up and she clenched her hand on the rim of the screen.

"All of him will be left," she said harshly. "You should be worried about how much of you they'll be able to send back for burial."

Before he could say anything Malik cut the feed and rounded on the back of the craft, jerking open the emergency weapons and armor cache.


	3. Sneaking

Just finished college, so that's part of the reason I haven't updated. That and I was feeling a little weird about sharing fanfic lately. I appreciate the constructive crit, but I write fanfic to relax so I don't agonize so much about some of the details. With that in mind, I appreciate my one reviewer for so kindly pointing out that if I want realistic whump David should be behaving differently with a head injury. However, I'd have to change so much of the fic that I don't care at this point. So I'm invoking the liberty of BS injuries for this one. Sorry David! This chapter's longer because I made you wait a month. (sorry)

* * *

David was sitting on Adam's bunk, head in his hand when the cell door was suddenly wrenched open. He looked up, expecting to see Adam. Instead Doctor Wen was standing in the small space, his jaw clenched in apparent fury.

"You were found with our subject. Why?" he demanded, his tone clipped and icy.

David knew he couldn't play his relationship with Adam off as "we just met and you kidnapped us" since they'd seen him tending to him. "I'm an augmentation engineer," he said, knowing that at least he could back up should they expect him to prove it. "Adam was my client, I was briefing him on some of his tech but he was in a hurry so I was walking with him."

The doctor's lips pressed together, but he didn't look convinced. After a moment he nodded, turning and gesturing out of the door. "Follow me."

David hesitated, wary of some kind of trap. "What no handcuffs?" he asked, his tone joking.

Wen didn't look amused. "You have one hand and I have plenty of backup. Please do not make this difficult."

He pressed his lips together, but he nodded, following the doctor out. The camera in the torture room was off, and David tried to take comfort in the suggestion that the kidnappers had made their point. His comfort was gone when he got a good look at Adam.

His security chief was strapped down, gold coolant slithering down the inclined table from the damage points on his prosthetics. There were electrical burn marks showing on his chest over the bruising that was still trying to heal. He was conscious judging by his breathing rate, but he had his eyes closed and though he must have been in pain he wasn't all tensed up. He seemed too exhausted for that. David had to stifle the urge to go to him, and instead he put his hand on his hip, glancing at the doctor.

"Okay, what now?"

"You are this man's personal engineer, are you not?"

"Kind of, yeah. I mean, he's had work done by several people—guy's an addict."

"There is something in his shielding that I cannot get around no matter what. This is severely impeding my purpose." He crossed his arms, nodding to Adam's prone form as the second man lowered the table to a flat position. "Fix it."

David couldn't help the way his expression changed, his eyebrows shooting up.

"You want me to what?"

"You know his hardware. You understand how his shielding works. We saw you working on him last night. Take down his shields, and we will let you go."

"And if I don't?" David demanded, unable to keep up the subservient ploy. He could feel his defensive side flaring.

There was a click and a gun was suddenly held to his head. The augmented cameraman had moved while the doctor was talking.

"I think you know what happens if you don't."

David shrugged, swallowing back his natural inclination to step away from the gun or give in to save himself. His self-preservation was shockingly low when it meant sacrificing Adam to do it. "Go ahead. You kill me and you'll still have his shields up."

The doctor's eyes narrowed. "What relationship do you have to the prisoner really?"

"I don't follow. I said I was his mechanic, for lack of a better term. That hasn't changed in the past five minutes."

"You, a 'mechanic', are willing to die for your client?" Wen scoffed. "That seems highly unlikely. Who is he really?" He looked David up and down critically, then glanced back over at Adam. He raised both eyebrows. "Your son?"

David felt an unexpected pang shoot through his heart and he clenched his fingers on his hip to keep from closing his fist. "You kidding? How old do I look? Look, I don't know what school you're from but I was brought up thinking you don't have to be related to a person to want to do the right thing."

The doctor took a step closer, as though daring David to back up. He didn't. "You aren't 'doing the right thing' here. You are going to die. Or you flip a few switches and I let you go. You won't be the one torturing him. You will not be responsible for his death."

The CEO grit his teeth. "You might be able to reason it like that, but I don't. I'm not helping you. Go ahead and pull the trigger. With all these anti-augmentation laws I'll be out of a job soon anyway, and when I am I'd rather be dead then stuck out on the streets of a scum pit like lower Hengsha."

The doctor's lips pulled in a sneer. "Have it your way." He lifted his hand to signal the shooter and David braced himself.

"Wait."

David looked up in surprise. It was Adam that had spoken, his head turned towards them. His one visible eye was staring hard at David, and he almost looked angry. "It's okay. Remove the shielding."

Sarif shook his head, fighting the tightness in his chest. "No, I'm not helping these people."

"You're not helping them. You're helping me, you're helping yourself. You're helping Malik. Please, Andrew. Just cooperate."

He swallowed, taken completely off guard by Adam's use of his middle name. He understood that it was to keep his identity a secret, but it was also a way for Adam to get his attention.

Only two people knew David's middle name. His sister Eva, and Adam.

Adam had noticed an anomaly on the ground floor of the plant, and with Megan's speech in Washington coming up David insisted that everything strange be brought to him. Instead of reporting when the doors slid open however, Adam stopped in his tracks, slowly taking in the mess of bottles and unsteady hand David had wrapped around a glass still half-full.

_Come on, boss. That's enough for one night._ Adam had said, kneeling next to Sarif's chair and gently turning his head so he could assess his eyes. David couldn't remember any more what Adam's expression had been, but he couldn't forget the waves of worry and concern coming off of his security chief.

He hadn't meant to drink that much, but his father had been dead for five years on that day and after all the pressure over Megan's discovery David overdid it. He had to be taken to a private hospital to avoid press, and Adam stayed with him most of the night, just talking. David had gotten a lot from his father. His aggressive personality, his passion for robotics, and his name. Andrew Mason Sarif hadn't lived to see David find the solution to the implant rejection that had killed him.

He blinked, still trying to process what Adam had said against the revulsion running through him. The augmented kidnapper jabbed his temple with the gun and he cried out, jerking away as the vibration jarred the fractured part of his eye socket. He cupped the damage with his hand, breathing heavily and hunching his shoulders.

"Or—" Wen said, taking the gun from the other man and tapping the trigger thoughtfully. David blinked away the involuntary tears caused by pain and forced himself to straighten up and face Wen. "We could just bypass this all. We know that Malik is coming—the bait needn't be alive," he said, leveling the gun at Adam's temple. "I see he has a patch in the forefront of his skull. This is only a guess, but he had a head injury before, didn't he? A bullet?" There was an ominous click as Wen toyed with the safety. "Think he can survive another?"

David's entire body went cold. He took his hand away from his face, his fingers smeared bloody from where a blood-filled swelling had broken open anew. "No—don't. I'll…I'll remove the shielding."

"I thought you might," Wen said, pulling the gun back and handing it off to his partner. "You try anything, and we're back to the offer where Mr. Jensen dies, only there will be no warning before we pull the trigger. Understand?"

He nodded.

"Good. I will return with all the supplies we have. You will make them work."

David only turned to look at Adam, utter defeat in his eyes as he clenched and unclenched his remaining hand.

Malik had combat training. There were basics that came with the pilot training since she'd gotten her license through a military training school, but the rest she'd gone out and gotten on her own. She'd begun when she was a young girl. Growing up in a harsh neighborhood did that—she knew how to street fight, but she didn't like it. It was too messy, too bloody. She hated how those fights dragged on. She wasn't in it for the aggression, she was only in it to protect herself, so she'd started studying martial arts. It was the quickest, cleanest way of ending a fight almost before it began. After the attack on Sarif, she'd gone back to lessons. She hadn't had to use them yet, but after what she'd just seen the unfamiliar urge to fight, to fight for the sake of the fight, came over her and she was glad she'd gone back for more training.

She shrugged a bullet-resistant tank top over her head and tapped at the biometric fibers, watching the flashing of acknowledging lights as the smart fibers recorded her settings. The silvery fabric tightened up, fitting to her size and hardening. It was still flexible enough that she could use her training, but hard enough that a graze wouldn't penetrate and a direct hit probably wouldn't kill. She pulled her T-shirt on over it, and then zipped up her flight suit, patting herself down to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything.

She had two disposable rebreathers, two gas grenades, a Cyberboost bar, and a stun gun with six charges. She'd wanted to take the pistol, but as much as she hated what those men were doing she knew a stun gun would do the work just as well and she refused to go down to their level.

_Their level is torture. Death is too good for them_, she thought, forcing herself away from the more deadly stock. She'd never killed and she wasn't about to start unless they left her absolutely no other option.

Malik would have taken more supplies if she thought she could conceal them, but the VTOL didn't stock a whole lot to begin with and all she had was her flight suit. Anything else would look suspicious. She powered the VTOL down, slapping her palm to the scanner so that no-one could open the hatch but her when she returned.

Everything set, she plunged into the golden night of lower Hengsha, flitting through the crowd with a practiced step.

Her goal was a dark spot in all the glow, a place abandoned years ago when a private contractor looking to start a business doing discreet mercenary air support contacted the wrong people for loans and paid dearly for it. It had become a no-man's land for the gangs of Hengsha, and she knew the Harvesters frequented it often looking for bodies. If a gang killed someone the decaying underground hanger was the perfect place to go dump the corpse. The cops tended to leave the area alone. The gangs individually were bad enough—but any cop who dared cross into shared territory was asking for the wrath of all the gangs at once. They never worked together normally—unless a cop threatened their spots.

As long as she avoided the men who actually had Adam and David and were looking for her, other people would leave her alone. Harvesters would be all over her for her augments should she die, but they rarely killed for their supply, especially for something as basic as flight enhancement software. If she met a Harvester face to face on the no-man's land, they'd ignore one another. Hopefully.

She stopped just outside of the rusting chain-link, looking for a way over or around it. To the right Hengsha's river flowed in an oily reflection of the shore's skyline, and she considered the weak points that might be near the river.

From what she'd seen in the video her target was near the North end of the compound in one of the old hangers. The idiots who were threatening her had rigged up old supply lights from a pillaged VTOL, design line number 459B. Probably made in 2020. The second she'd recognized the shape of the fixture the familiarity of the room clicked together. They were holed up in the repair bay of a smaller class VTOL hanger.

Pulling a small knife from her boot and tucking it into her palm, Malik got down on her stomach and began inching along the fence, trying to remember where she'd gotten in before. Back when she was beginning flight-school she and her roommate at the time had gotten a little drunk and dared each other to sneak into the abandoned lot. She'd discovered some kind of breach in the chain-link near the water on that night, but it was years ago and she wasn't sure it'd still be there.

She pressed insistently at the wire until she felt something give. A flare of triumph shot through her and she pushed the pieces apart with a scraping, degraded links falling to the pavement as she wriggled in.

David had never felt as sick to his stomach as he did working on Adam to take down his EMP defenses. When he'd seen what was left of Adam after the attack he'd felt sick. When they'd had the confrontation about Adam's augments, about David's role in limb replacement, he'd felt the rift between them and he'd finally understood things from Adam's perspective and he'd felt sick. But this was a different kind of sickness.

This was Adam laying there quietly while David stripped away his defenses so someone else could rip them all apart. He was helpless and tormenting all at once, two things he hated with everything he had. He was serious when he said he ran Sarif for the benefit, not the money. Torment was what he fought against. And helplessness—well that wasn't in his personality. He felt violated and controlled and the anger turned to bile in his chest.

"I'm going to need more light and a nutrient IV for the patient," David said, bent over Adam's back. He had a scalpel in his hand, the doctor standing by with gauze to clean up the meager blood seeping from the back of his neck. They'd sedated Adam again and turned him over, only a crude metal frame around his head to allow his neck to stay straight and still give him room to breathe. David had carefully slit two inches down his patient's spine right between the trapezius muscles, probing around in the wound for the tiny interface plugs where he could manually manipulate many of Adam's augments. The glistening white and silver of one of Adam's hybrid vertebra was exposed to the air, the blood welling around it weakly staining the tips of his fingers as he felt for the indicator notch.

"We can provide more light but there will be no IV," Wan said, snapping his glove off as he got up and moved to flick on a lamp, adjusting the head.

"There will be an IV if you want this to work and for Jensen to survive it," David said, setting the scalpel aside and picking up the hair-thin wire that he would use to re-program Adam's shielding.

Wen's raised one eyebrow. "You forget I am a LIMB technician. I know when a patient needs nutrients. Giving him an IV will give his batteries a chance to replenish. We wouldn't want that."

"You forget that you had to ask me to do this for you because you don't understand his systems," David snapped back. "He's laced with more technology than your degree knows how to cover, and most of it is experimental. There are some energy drain bugs—stuff that wouldn't be a problem in normal circumstances. Well here, it's a problem. Because when I turn off his shielding I have to bypass his energy sensors to do it. His body won't be able to tell when his augments are on the edge of killing him. It will keep letting them draw energy from him until he'll be too weak to recover, let alone survive another one of your sick stints of stopping his heart!"

Wen's eyes narrowed and his lips pressed together. "You're lying. He wouldn't have allowed a system that could drain him to death."

"Well it's not supposed to because we've got these sensors you're asking me to turn off," Sarif said, gesturing at the hairline scratches in the exposed bone that were filled with silver conducting metals. "And I told you. He's an addict. There's about as much risk in this tech as there is in skydiving, but adrenaline addicted morons jump out of planes anyway. It shouldn't kill you, but it can. The tech he's carrying as it is now is relatively safe. But I'm poking around in the brain of most of his gear. The only way this could get more dangerous is if we actually went into the work lacing the inside of his skull."

The doctor's eyes cast aside as he thought and for a moment David felt his heart shudder as he wondered if the medic was considering it. They didn't have the equipment to safely crack open Adam's skull and put it back together again and the kid had had enough stuff in his head already. In his soul he was begging Wen to give Adam some kind of break.

"Fine, I will set up the IV."

David tried to control the relieved breath that left him.

Wen caught it and his expression hardened again. "Keep working."

When Malik found the compound the only reason she knew she was in the right place is because she heard David shouting. Her brow furrowed and she froze, hitting the ground a moment later and scrambling to get to the grate the voice was coming from.

"-alone survive another one of your sick stints of stopping his heart!"

She covered her mouth, holding her breath even as her adrenaline surged and demanded more. She couldn't hear the doctor reply, but she could make out more from David as his voice lowered a little and he argued with his captor. She couldn't tell what exactly was going on, but she knew they were talking about Adam which meant he was still alive. He had to be. She smiled, almost crying with relief as she listened to David take Wen down a peg. Their boss was fighting for Adam, which meant they had a chance at winning. They could get out of this.

She shuffled around, crawling on her stomach near the vent, trying to picture the typical layout of an underground hanger. If she was right, there should be a ventilation shaft big enough for her to craw through that would have been a mandatory safety feature for a landing pad/hanger hybrid. If the vent wasn't there and a vehicle was left running without the bay doors open the toxic fumes would suffocate anyone trapped within. When she finally found the latch she chewed her lip, sizing up the grate. It was definitely big enough for her to crawl through, but it would be hard to maneuver.

She pulled out the two rebreathers, popping hers in her mouth and tucking David's carefully in her sleeve where it would be easy to get to. She moved the gas grenade to her breast pocket as she smoothed the rebreather against the back of her teeth, careful not to crack and activate the thin piece of tech prematurely. She closed her mouth gingerly, feeling the hard plastic between her teeth as it settled into place. Wrenching open the grate with a rusty groan, she headed in.

David wiped the last of the blood off his fingers as best he could without his metal hand to aid him. He swallowed back his anger as he listened to Wen inject Adam with a counteragent to wake him up. Evidently the doctor was getting impatient, and was sadistic enough to want to see Adam's conscious reaction to feeling the full force of whatever tortures he wished to inflict with the shielding gone.

He turned around, watching as Adam came awake. Wen gave a nasty smirk and adjusted the IV, moving to the camera man to speak with him in low Chinese. David didn't pay attention. He went to Adam's side and took his hand, pretending to inspect calibration. Instead, he pressed his thumb against the most sensitive part of Adam's palm and tapped out one word in Morse code.

Adam's brow furrowed and he turned his head weakly, his fingers twitching around David's as though trying to capture the message. David glanced up at the two captors who were still talking and tried again.

**C*-*-*U***

David watched a spark of recognition light in Adam's eyes and he knew Jensen had figured out what he was trying to do. He tapped out the word one more time, just to be sure.

ICARUS.

Adam blinked slowly, nodding his head only just enough to make the action look deliberate. David nodded back and slipped his hand from Adam's, letting his fingers linger on the four gunmetal ports that made up Adam's knuckles, hoping he got the second half of the message. Adam gave no indicator and he didn't have time to as Wen turned back around and the augmented cameraman turned back to his lens.

"Shall we return to work?" Wen asked, picking up a probe that hummed with electricity.

Adam didn't flinch from staring him back in the face through his flickering HUD. The EMP was working its way into his systems, scrambling the sensors giving him false information, but he felt stronger than he had before the surgery. Right before Wen jabbed the Taser into his collarbone Adam though he saw the fuzzy green of a full power cell flash in the notification corner of his HUD.

The vent system went to at least a dozen different hangers, and Malik had to move slowly to avoid being heard when she neared the correct one. Forcing herself to ease up was difficult, and only became more so as the sounds of crackling electricity and hushed Chinese reverberated ghostlike around her head and got stronger. Whatever they'd been arguing about must be over because David's voice no longer mingled in the conversation.

When she finally found the correct grate she stopped, peering through it at the back of one of the lamps they'd rigged in the camera room. She couldn't see anything else and she cursed quietly, trying to decide what to do. She had no idea how many were down there, what they had as far as weapons, or even what kind of shape Adam was in. Just because he was alive didn't mean he was in any condition to go anywhere. She buried her fingers in her hair and tried to think over the pained cries coming from the room between the electric popping. It was almost impossible to keep herself from bolting in.

She wracked herself with potential plans and dangers, straining herself against the side of the vent so she could see better. There were two men in the room besides Adam and David, but beyond that she just didn't know. IT must have taken more than two to capture Adam to begin with, right? Where were the rest of them? Against every fiber in her she backpedaled, working her way back into the vents and turning around, deciding her best course of action would be to drop out of a grate in the adjoining hanger and then hope they'd left the doors open between. At least then she wouldn't be dropping in full view of the augmented merc working the camera.

The next room over was empty, though one portion that used to be a storage bunker had been turned into a crude prison cell. She saw blood on the floor and knew that it had to be Adam's. Maybe David's. She turned towards the door with her heart pounding, her fury kicking into a heated overdrive as another cry came through the harsh metal. Just before her fingers gripped the handle the place fell silent. She froze with the noise, straining to hear a clue, terrified that they'd killed him again, terrified that they'd already damaged his brain beyond recovery.

A body hit the ground and muffled cursing in Chinese spat from incredulous teeth splattered against the door like gore. Just as she tensed to wrench the door open a golden blast slammed into it and knocked into her, throwing her to the ground.

One cell. Adam had one cell that David must have figured out how to give him and he intended to use it. He grit his teeth against the new pain as Wen took his time, dragging the sharp prongs of the Taser along Adam's collarbone, down his side, jabbing it into places still gaspingly tender from bruising. He fought the pain by concentrating on the broken humming of his Icarus augment, all of his will bent on threading together the pieces of barely functioning tech. The EMP had set most of his hardware to factory zero, but the experimental additions David had just installed had no factory zero. They had only their background default, and as long as there was enough energy in Adam's body to scrape together a charge, they would work.

He couldn't help his pained cry and he grit his teeth violently, clenching his fists as he tried not to torque his wrists and ankles beyond repair. Wen pulled the probe away for a moment, reaching for some kind of needle and poking through a tray of glass bottles a few feet away.

Adam panted, blinking to steady his vision as much as he could, trying to get his breath back. His sentinel was working, but only barely, the EMP chewing through its defenses so that the electricity from the Taser could cripple it.

Mustering everything he had left, he closed his eyes and pulled it all together until it was a white-hot point in the middle of his spine. He opened his eyes and glanced at David, the build of energy causing his retinas to glow. He nodded and David threw himself to the ground. Wen turned around just in time to see the golden arcs envelop Adam's body, brimming from his knuckles, his shoulders, his Typhoon ports until it overwhelmed itself and shot out in a white gold blast.


	4. Unconventional Help

This story will get finished, I promise. I just had a dry spell as far as fanfic writing and I had to decide where to go with this. Sorry about the wait.

* * *

Malik was dazed, but conscious, blinking up at the ceiling and trying to understand what had just happened. Painfully, she sat up, working air back into lungs that had been forcibly emptied. She winced, getting to her feet, spitting out the remains of the rebreather. So much for being prepared. Her teeth had snapped together when she'd been thrown backwards and the device had activated. Cautiously, she went into the room, her eyes wide. Both captors were either dead or soundly unconscious. One figure to her right was moving.

"David!" she said, rushing to help her boss get up. He was struggling against the wall, waving her off and shaking his head.

"Adam—" he coughed harshly, gasping back his breath. "Go check on Adam!"

She turned, swallowing back bile as she went to the table where he was still strapped down. He wasn't moving. She reached out fingers that wouldn't stop trembling, pressing them into his throat, trying not to think about the electrical burns marring his torso or the coolant stains crystallizing on the table from his strained augments. A pulse pressed back against her fingers and she drew a shuddering breath, tears tracking from the corners of her eyes as she bent her head and pressed her forehead into his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Adam," she whispered, pressing a kiss to the warm metal and then to his cheekbone. His pulse skipped under her fingers and she felt a pang as though it was her own heart struggling.

"How is he?" David asked, coming anxiously to her side and looking Adam over himself.

"Alive," Malik said, crossing her arms and moving to Adam's other side so David could work. "But if he's going to stay that way we need to get him out of here right now. Are there any others? I didn't see any coming in but we can't afford any kind of conflict, not with him like this. Or you—what happened to your face, your arm?"

David was pressing his thumb gingerly into Adam's eye, nudging back the lid so he could assess the pupil. He sighed, dropping his hand to Adam's chest to assess the severity of the burns. "Adam happened. Kid's smart—knew I'd be a liability if they knew who I was so he took away my two biggest defining features." He shook his head, rubbing his eyes and forehead as he glanced up at the blank vitals screen. Adam's blast had fried it completely. "We can't move him. Not like this. He's gone into a power shutdown, and if we try to force him out of it he will die."

Malik's eyes went wide and she shook her head. "What?! No! We can't leave him here! What do you mean power shutdown, what happened in here?"

David checked the drip that had remained in Adam's neck, adjusting the flow and working with what he had to stabilize him. "They couldn't damage Adam as much as they wanted to with his advanced EMP shielding up. I made the mistake of showing off my knowledge of Adam's augments and they forced me to deactivate his shielding. They drained him, Faridah," David said, and she could feel the anger in his timbre. "They kept him from food, barely allowed him water, and sapped his reserves once the shield was down. He had nothing left. I was able to lie my way into getting him an IV, but it was only enough to give him one shot. He took it. The EMP re-set all of his augments to 0.0, but it's hard to factory zero an augment that wasn't made in a factory. A few weeks ago I adjusted his Icarus augment so he can use it as a launching system. I also re-calibrated so he could use it as a short range stun without requiring him to build the momentum of a fall first."

"You turned him into a stun grenade," Malik said, deadpan and staring at David.

"Yes." He nodded, re-taking Adam's pulse and counting his breaths, doing calculations in his head even as they talked. "It was Adam's idea, actually. Something that worked like the Typhoon but wasn't so destructive. That blast took out our immediate threat, but he's got nothing left. His augments make up sixty-five percent of his body and they use an enormous amount of energy. The only thing keeping him alive right now is this comatose state."

"There isn't some kind of fail-safe against that?" Faridah asked, resting her hand on Adam's bicep, watching his chest rise and fall just to reassure herself that he hadn't given in yet. If Adam died because he was involved in something Malik planned she'd never forgive herself. Finding out Lee's guilt and exposing him was important, but if the price was Adam it was far too high.

"There is. But I had to bypass it in order to take down his shielding. I could try to re-activate, but that's delicate surgery and I don't have the means to do it safely. Opening him up the first time to turn it off was dangerous enough." David moved to the other side of the table and turned Faridah gently towards him with a hand on her shoulder. His eyes locked with hers and she felt something clench in her throat, knowing David was about to say something neither of them would find easy.

"Faridah, we have to leave him. We have to go, clear the way, get supplies, and come back for him."

Anger welled up behind her sternum and she shook her head vehemently, pushing David's hand off of her. "No, absolutely not. You go, get your arm replaced, get us supplies, and come back. I'm not leaving him. I'll guard him until you can get us help."

"Faridah," David said gently. "I don't know this city like you do. I don't even know where we are right now. If Adam is going to have any chance at all we have to lock him in here and you have to come with me for help. I'd stay with him and guard him, but he'll be safer than you locked in here and you said yourself you don't know how many guards there are. I might be beat up but I can still help you fight them off and give all three of us a better chance."

Malik swallowed back angry tears and looked at Adam, knowing David was right. She breathed to steady herself and reached out to give Adam's hand a reassuring squeeze.

"We lock him up, we get back in three hours, tops," she said, letting go and turning to David. "And we contact Pritchard the second we know Adam is out of Hong's influence."

"Of course," David said, and Malik knew she was being unfair in her anger with him. They were both, ultimately, worried about Adam and just doing the best they could for him.

They got out, strangely enough, without resistance. They'd moved both bodies out and locked them in David's cell, just in case they turned out to be more than bodies. They bolted, shut, and dragged things closed before turning off the harsh observation lamps and leaving Adam's hanger, hoping that if anyone came poking around they would think a locked, dark landing pad too much trouble to be worth anything. Malik ran David across the city until they reached a LIMB clinic where they could not only buy supplies for Adam but get David help both legal and physical.

While they were working on giving David a temporary replacement arm Malik spoke with LIMB security about how he'd come to be in that shape to begin with. LIMB clinics were only a step down in safety from a police station since they were protected by all kinds of legal tape against malpractice, discrimination, and terrorist attack. She didn't know how long those laws would remain with the recent scares about augmented individuals and registration, but for the time being they held and she knew she and David would be as safe as possible inside the walls.

She didn't dare tell security what had actually happened, knowing that Hong had way too many fingers in LIMB and that if the officers thought the damage done to David was anything other than a hate crime they might report back to him. She considered leaving David in their hands and going back to Adam herself, but she couldn't risk patching in to speak with Pritchard and without him or David she wouldn't be able to get Adam back on his feet. She didn't know near enough about his augments to fix him herself and trying to contact Pritchard might alert Hong that something wasn't right. She was shocked that more hadn't happened already—it seemed too good to be true that there hadn't been cameras fried by Adam's blast to alert Hong that he was losing his leverage.

Malik chewed at her lip and re-checked the supplies she'd bought while waiting for David, running scenarios through her head in a whirl. She was missing something. Getting out had been too easy. Something was not right. They were going to get back and Adam would be—Adam—she bit down harder and tasted blood.

"Ready?" David said, jumping Malik out of her state as he came back to the waiting room. Already his face looked miles better and he was working the fingers of a high-level standard prosthesis around and around a credit chip as though getting used to the feel. Malik recognized basic dexterity therapy movements in his perceived fidgeting and admired David's subtle determination.

"Ready," she nodded, taking his arm and thanking the officer at the door as they walked out, looking for all the world like father and daughter. To try and preserve their cover a little longer Malik had either tied over or ripped off identifying marks on her suit that linked her with Sarif. By the time they'd gotten done vandalizing her flight suit she looked no different than one of the free runners that populated the Lower Hengsha streets popping stunts and climbing scaffolds for credits. David hadn't needed a disguise, his suit had been torn and dirtied beyond recognition as nice clothing and he'd stripped down to his undershirt while at the clinic, leaving him in a grease-smeared tank top and ripped pants. Despite their ethnicity they would blend right back into the crowd and have no trouble getting to the abandoned landing yard.

Getting across the yard and back to Adam was a different story.

Malik cursed as they ducked behind a rusted mobile office, grabbing David's shirt and yanking him hard to crouch by her, just avoiding a flashlight beam from a pacing guard. She closed her eyes and pressed her back against the wall, her arm across David's chest forcing him to do the same. They both stayed there and breathed, and under Malik's palm she could feel how hard Sarif's heart was beating. He was keeping his cool visually but inside he was just as scared as she was. She lowered her arm as the footsteps passed by and leaned around the corner, watching as the guard turned back towards the hangers.

"He's definitely working for Hong," she whispered, scanning the yard for others. There were at least five.

"How do you know?"

"He's not wearing any insignia, which means he's private muscle hired for a private job. Even the gangs have symbols, and it's considered betrayal not to wear them prominently. He might be Belltower or Sharpedge. They both have been known to ditch the uniform for a little extra work on the side. Bottom line is we can't fight these guys, not on our own," she said, the last few words coming through grit teeth as she thought.

"Any chance there's police not paid off by Hong?" David asked, peering around himself to see what they were dealing with.

"Maybe, but there's no way to tell, no time to find out, and they couldn't help us anyway. This is gang territory—a neutral zone that all the gangs use equally. Cops don't dare come in because the only thing scarier than the Harvesters is the Harvesters working with every other crew in the city. A cop sets foot inside that fence and he doesn't come out again."

"How can all the gangs get along like that?" David asked. "This seems like a good spot, why hasn't anyone claimed it?"

"It is a good spot," Malik conceded. "And that's why. It's too good. They'd lose too many members fighting over it so there's this unspoken rule that they share. Civilians aren't a problem and cops don't dare. Any gang that tries to establish ownership over the area is going to have the other three or four who use it against them and they're going to lose."

She fell silent again and edged back further into shadow as two more guards patrolled past, and as she watched their symbol less backs something clicked. She turned to David, tapping his shoulder and motioning for him to follow her. Silently, they moved around the building and retreated back towards the fence, using old barrels and crates for cover until they reached a signaling tower at the corner. Glancing around to make sure they wouldn't be seen, Malik jumped and caught the first rung, pulling herself up the tower. David followed suit and they both perched there, out of sight and earshot but able to see most of the yard.

"How many do you count?" Malik asked, gesturing to the figures milling around by the hangers.

"At least fifteen," David said. "Probably more underground. Why?"

"That's way more than capacity," Malik said, a grim satisfaction settling in her eyes.

"I don't follow. What's going on, Faridah?"

"Hong was smart to keep this thing low key, but now that we've pissed him off he got sloppy. A handful of unmarked soldiers using this spot as a torture point is no big deal to the gangs, but this many at once without declared allegiance and purpose—this is an act of war. Right now Hong's men are displaying intent to take territory, and the gangs aren't going to like it. Most of them probably already know and are gathering up for a fight."

She looked at David, a hardness in her eyes that he had never seen before settling into her words.

"We need to go to the Hive. Tong will want to know that his dumping territory is being threatened, and if we can convince him to help us maybe Adam won't get caught in the crossfire."


	5. Just Business

Shortish chapter with a mild language warning, but I wanted you guys to know I haven't abandoned this story. I've just been distracted and my writing is struggling. Forgive the lapse.

* * *

Malik was the one who's idea it was to walk straight up to a harvester. David kept close behind her, and as he predicted the harvester's gaze flicked up and down the both of them, assessing for augs that might be useful. After all, normal people didn't just walk up to one of the most infamous gang members in all of Lower Hengsha, especially not normal augmented people.

With the increase in augmentation laws the harvesters had gotten more and more dangerous, because not only could they raid bodies but they also had fingers in the police's confiscation and enforcement divisions. If an officer could make a pretty piece or two off of a misfiled cloaking chip then all the better. The harvesters had always been powerful, but now they were almost royalty. The kind of royalty that would drag out the guillotine if you looked at them sideways.

"I need to speak with Tong, and I know he's not at the Hive," Malik said bluntly in fluid Chinese, crossing her arms. The harvester crossed his in return, his digigrade, high-gloss, highly illegally spiked leg prosthetics making a cool clicking noise as he stepped back a little, crossing his ankles and tilting his head. David resisted the urge to smack himself in the forehead with his metal hand. Malik's bluntness had gotten her the job with Sarif, but sometimes it worried David.

"Tong isn't someone you can just call like a lap dog," the Harvester sneered, leaning forward and brushing the underside of Malik's chin with a metal-tipped finger. Malik slapped his hand away and David clasped his hands together to keep from intervening. The Harvester's expression darkened, but Malik didn't back away.

"Tong knows who I am. I hacked his club. I work with Adam Jensen, someone who helped rescue and then smuggle Tong's son less than two years ago. And right now Adam is in the middle of a bunch of guys who want to take Tong's favorite dumping ground."

The Harvester's eyebrows went up and Malik dug into her pocket, pulling out her pocket secretary and flashing it at the Harvester. "Here's a few shots of the guys playing takeover right this second. They have my friend and soon they're going to paint Tong's territory in his blood." She tossed the secretary to the harvester, who caught it reflexively and scrolled through the pictures. David could tell he was convinced and he applauded Malik mentally, both for her bravery and the sheer willpower it took for her to talk about Adam's situation without wavering.

"How do you know they're taking over?" The Harvester pressed, his retinas flashing even as he asked. David knew he was scanning the images and sending them to Tong's email.

"More than thirty guys in a neutral area is a non-verbal intent to claim," Malik said, hands now on her hips. "I know how the gangs work, and even if they aren't trying to tag your spot they're attracting attention, using resources, and robbing Tong of a potentially very powerful ally. Tong knows what Adam has and what he can do. His augs might be nice on Tong's shelf, but who knows what will be left of them if we let those men have their way. And after Tong saw Adam's skillset he knows that Adam is far more valuable breathing and owing him a favor than he is as scrap metal."

"Excellent reasoning, Ms. Malik. Your skills are wasted as a piolet." Tong's voice came in over a mic the harvester had activated in his cerebral comm, effectively putting himself on speakerphone.

"I try," Malik said dryly. "Are you helping us?"

"I don't see why not. I wouldn't mind teaching these mercenaries a lesson and seeing what they have to offer me at the same time," Tong said, and David could hear the smug relaxation in his tone. He was all business, something that, for once, annoyed the piss out of David.

"Good, meet me at the gate on the West side, we have some negotiating that needs to be done. Face to face," she said evenly.

"The only negotiating we are going to do is exactly how much of Adam I will own after I save his life."

"He's a human being!" David exclaimed, pushing forward so he was standing next to Malik, who grabbed his augmented arm to stop him. "You can't own any of him! Under legal parameters his augments are just as much his property as his God-given cells. You don't and will never own one wire on him!"

Malik's lips pressed together and she shot David a warning look that was half pleading.

"Legal has nothing to do with it, Mr. Sarif," Tong shot back, and David grit his teeth. "If I save Adam's life, he will owe me a favor. It is up to me what that favor entails. Do not think for one moment that there is any real loss in waiting until those mercenaries finish what they came here to do. If Adam is dead, I can take his augments. If his augments are damaged, I can reverse-engineer them. If he is gone completely, well. I haven't lost anything really."

"IF HE DIES YOU'LL LOSE ANY CHANCE YOU EVER HAD OF BEING FREE FROM NEROPYZINE!" David exploded, and the only thing that kept him from surging forward and grabbing the harvester's shirt was Malik's desperate, shocked grip on him.

"David!" She scolded, her eyes wide with consternation. "You can't offer Adam up like that, don't you think you and Megan damaged him enough the first time around!?"

"I can and I did, so just shut it Faridah," David said, pushing Malik off of him.

"You don't own him either, David. He isn't a rat, or a miracle cure, or the insurance policy for your failing company. He's a human being who's dealt with enough shit from you and Megan and your business plan mentality! It's your fault he doesn't have half of his natural body anymore, your fault that he was suicidal for two months, your fault he has PTSD and is now one of thousands who is at risk of being beaten, or arrested, or torn to pieces because he needs metal to function!"

"He's alive because of me, because of my research!" David defended, one hand fisted against his chest. "My business plan is keeping him alive! Tong has no real reason to fight for us and spare him other than the miracle that's still locked in his DNA. Megan's research was never completed, and dead cells won't carry what we need so that means our only known cure for augmentation rejection lies in Adam. That will save Tong and his men billions. If that means Adam gets to be a test subject one more time then so be it," he finished, chest heaving.

He saw her fury flare right before she reared up and slapped him.

He turned away, holding his jaw and blinking away tears caused by the shockwave of pain the slap had made across his fractured nose. He looked back at her, but there was no apology in his eyes and behind them the harvester was watching with an intrigued, uncertain expression. Tong had been quiet for the entire exchange, and David swallowed thickly, wishing he could have dealt with this in private. He knew how Malik would react, and he had been prepared to handle it, to say whatever he had to just so he could get Adam home alive, but it had all fallen out of his hands.

"Well, this has been interesting," Tong finally said. "Ling, pass my frequency to Sarif. We need to talk alone."

The harvester nodded once and tapped his temple, ending the call. A moment later David felt a click as Tong locked into his frequency.

"I admire your enthusiasm, Mr. Sarif, but am appalled by your methods," he began, and David folded his arms, turning his back on the look of righteous fury he was receiving from his pilot.

"Do we have a deal or not, Tong?" David demanded. "I don't have all day and Adam sure as hell doesn't."

"I already sent a few of my men to investigate. If what you're saying and what you sent me is an accurate assessment of the situation, then the other gangs who share the area will already know and already be there to back them up. The others know better than to take a large augmentation harvest from me and my men, so when the mercenaries are clear and Adam recovered they will leave him to me."

"You getting to him does not equal a promise that he'll walk away from this alive and in charge of his own body," David ground back.

"Yes, and despite your position of zero negotiating power I will say that Adam will walk free. And not because of your bargain, either. I admire your willingness to do anything to achieve your end, but am insulted that you don't think I have more honor than to let a man be subjected to unwilling experimentation for the sake of paying a debt that is not his. I play fair, Mr. Sarif, and Adam is not the one begging me for his life right now, you are. Therefore it is you that will owe me, not Jensen."

David swallowed thickly. "What do you want from me?"

"I want your word that if Jensen willingly cooperates with the extended experimentation and your company comes up with a neuropozine alternate that I and my harvesters will have a free, unlimited supply. Whatever it takes to get us away from relying on the drug. In the event that no such cure is found, you are free of our obligation."

David blinked, heart pounding with adrenaline as he tried to understand Tong's angle. A man like him wouldn't give help away out of the goodness of his heart.

"Why? What's the catch?"

"The catch is my honor, Mr. Sarif," Tong said dryly. "Getting Adam out alive will benefit me in the long run if you can discover his secret and manufacture it, true, but we have a steady supply of neuropozine as it is and no real pressing reason to go to inhuman lengths to discover a cure from it. The simple truth is that Adam hacked my club, rescued my son, and assisted him to safety. He is one of the few who deserves to carry the augments he has until he dies naturally or challenges me and I can take them and put them to use. And even if it wasn't Adam being held there, I don't take kindly to people invading my turf. Good evening, Mr. Sarif. Adam will be waiting for you with a harvester guard in his prison cell. I will clear out the guards, but it is up to you that he survives. If he doesn't, you owe me his augments."

The link ended abruptly and David turned back to Malik with a grim expression. The harvester had gone long before, and they stood alone in an alleyway lit by nightclub neon and glittering with broken glass. Malik was staring at him as though she was looking at a stranger she'd suddenly come to loathe.

"I cannot believe you were going to sell Adam to Tong. I thought he, I thought your relationship with him meant more to you than that," she said coldly, her arms folded tight as though restraining herself. "Did Tong take your offer?"

"He's helping Adam, and Adam won't owe him. That's all that matters. We need to get back to the site, be ready to help him when they clear the place out," David said wearily.

Malik didn't budge. "He trusted you," she hissed. "He forgave you even after he found out that you are the reason he doesn't have any of his natural limbs left. He stayed with your company, at your side in the middle of everything coming down around us and you were going to lay him out and start pulling samples again just to get what you wanted." She shook her head, angry tears standing in her eyes. "He loves you, David. I hope you realize that. Heaven help him he loves you like a father."

David's throat closed, his eyes burning as he turned away. "I know that, Faridah. And if he hates me, so be it." He took a steadying breath, forcing himself to meet her eyes. "I wasn't going to continue the research. I was going to lie through my teeth to get Tong to help us if I had to, but I wasn't even going to tell Adam, let alone do anything to compromise his trust again." David swallowed and his gained conviction as he continued, gesturing harshly at the ground with a pointed finger. "If he thought I was going to experiment on him again and left because of it, then that's his decision but I'd rather have him despise me and be alive than face burying the only man I've ever thought of as a son." His voice broke on the last word and he covered his eyes with his metal hand, turning away again as his emotional mask shattered. His negotiating powers were gone, and without them he felt drained, exhausted, and far too vulnerable. Malik didn't move for a long time, but presently her hand came to rest softly on his shoulder and she turned him around, wrapping him up in a tight hug, her face buried in his shoulder. Slowly, he bowed to return the embrace.


	6. Daybreak

Wow I can't believe I finally finished this monster. I hope you will forgive the lack of detail on Adam's recovery surgery, I just didn't have anymore in me for this round and the fic went about 13,000 words more than I'd originally intended. A quick note before you read the conclusion. I mention events in my one-shot "I Could Kiss You." At this point I've written well over a novel's worth of fics for this universe, so in some ways I've created my own bubble cannon and everything I write exists inside of that bubble.

* * *

Going back to the hideout was returning to a war zone. David swallowed. Malik had not even been close to exaggerating when she'd said the unmarked gang was a war cry. Bullets no longer cracked the air but the holes they left in bodies and walls were all too fresh. Smoke drifted acrid and hot from a melted spot in the concrete where some kind of explosive had killed the three men still sprawled around the crater.

Though he was glad he'd missed the fighting, David found the aftermath disturbing. The killing was so efficient the chill of it still hung in the air. He temporarily locked eyes with an armed ganger standing beneath a maintenance light and felt a shudder go through him. The other man stared back, the red light pulsing with the smoke from his cigarette. He was still holding a cocked weapon.

Malik strode on ahead with her eyes trained permanently on the hanger. She stepped around bodies and all she showed as far as reaction was a clenched jaw and a pallid complexion. Her breathing was shallow and sharp, but she clenched her fists and kept her head up, and the gang members seemed to respect her for it. David realized that this was a whole other kind of politics that he was all but mute in. Here, strangely enough, his chief pilot was the expert.

He'd known her training and residential background when he'd hired her but he'd never guessed that mob knowledge and a spine of steel would come with it. He was deeply impressed and for a fleeting moment wondered what would happen if Malik was Adam's field partner instead of his air support.

Adam was exactly where they left him, only now instead of complete darkness or harsh halogens to light his room there was the eerie lowlight of gold augmentation LEDs. No less than six Harvesters were circling Adam's table like some kind of cyberpunk ritual, their metal fingers clasped on weapons and the glittering spinal lights throwing conflicting shadows across Adam's body. They were identical, and David didn't dare ask if Tong had a Special Forces side to his gang. This was so uniform it was spooky, and David was immensely grateful that he lived in Michigan. The way Tong was going, soon the Harvesters wouldn't just control Lower Hengsha, they'd own it. This was no longer gang security, this was a private army.

The Harvesters parted like oil in water as they approached and Malik's only reaction to seeing Adam again was to fumble and grab David's hand under the table. Her complexion had gone as pale as it could go, and he caught her swallowing hard. It only then clicked about how much guilt she must be feeling. He squeezed back and freed his hand, rounding the table to check Adam over.

His skin had gone clammy and he was barely breathing. Even in his comatose state the energy drain was proving too much.

"We need to get him back to the VTOL," Malik said huskily, her fingers gripped hard on Adam's forearm opposite David.

David shook his head. "He won't survive the trip. Even with another IV he's barely hanging on, Faridah." He felt himself tearing up, his throat closing painfully.

"Then we take him to LIMB, get him enough to hang on—"

He shook his head again. "We can't take him to a LIMB clinic. They'd spend so much time bickering about the legalities of the surgery and his augments Adam would die in the interim."

"Sarif—"

"He won't survive the trip." David's voice broke on the last word and he didn't have the strength to stick it back together again. He covered his mouth with his metal hand and for the first time in his long career he hated the feel. "I'm sorry Faridah."

"My, my, Jensen. You do like to get yourself into tight spots, don't you?"

David and Malik both whirled, Malik's eyes going wide as Tong stepped into the lowlight, flashing a light up and down Adam's body as though he'd found something curious tucked away in the back closet. He tutted. "Such a waste."

"He's not dead yet!" Malik seethed, placing her small body in between Tong and Adam without a second thought.

"Oh, relax Xiǎo huǒ. I know a lost cause when I see one, and waiting around for Adam's inevitable expiration so I can have his augments is just a little too carrion feeder for me. No, bring him back to the Harvester base. I'll give you what you need to stabilize him and then you can take him back to Detroit."

Malik and David both stood stunned. Malik, her suspicion not quite able to turn away Tong's offer, spoke again, her voice barely a breath. "Why?"

"Because I still have respect for human life, despite what you both apparently think. And—how do you say it? I like Jensen's style." He gestured sharply to his harvesters, saying something David didn't catch in Chinese and in moments Adam had been scooped up and was being carried out into the early morning.

The Harvester base was not ideal for surgery. It was not ideal for anything really since it was a re-purposed parking garage, among other things, but Malik wasn't going to complain. She felt a shiver go down her spine as they passed the extraction room where the door was gaping, leaving a full view of the Harvester inside pulling bloodied wires from what was left of his victim's leg. Blood dribbled down the table and ran in channels towards a floor drain and she fisted her hands in her pockets to keep her disgust from showing. There was no respect for the people who'd died. None at all. She glanced back ahead at the Harvesters that were carrying Adam and tried to keep a lid on her suspicions. She still couldn't fully trust Tong's intentions or logic for helping them. She felt like they were seriously being duped and it was going to cost them at the worst possible moment. The only reason she hadn't fought back was because she knew they were backed against a wall. Adam literally had no chance of surviving unless Tong and David worked together to help him.

She felt her eyes burn but she refused to let her emotions go anywhere. How did this keep on happening to Adam? She remembered the first time they met when Megan had brought him around, right after his departure from SWAT. He'd been so…young then. She didn't really have another word for it and the thought made her want to wrap up somewhere warm and just sleep for so long. He'd been so young. She'd seen how the incident with his SWAT command weighed on him, but he still had some faith in the world. Still had the ability to look ahead and joke about security perks and make bad puns out of the chemicals Megan tried to explain to him. Malik's eyes watered and she couldn't help a private smile as a memory of him standing almost shoulder to hip with Megan when they both got off work for the night, he in the nicest tux she'd ever seen him wear, her still in her lab coat, off to see a movie and spend the night together to celebrate his hiring into the company.

Malik blinked away tears and crossed her arms, watching as they lay Adam down and got to work, Tong and David exchanging medical technobabble as their hands wove over Adam as though concocting technological magic. The utter ash in Adam's gaze for weeks, even months after the attack was still too fresh in her mind. He'd been grieving for Megan and his own body at the same time, and then when he'd discovered her alive and found out what their relationship had actually been he'd gone cold. After Panchaea his jaw had set a little harsher and for the first time since his surgery Malik thought his attitude suited his augments and that gave her a little chill. She hadn't been lying when she'd told him that augmentation suited him—but part of the harmony was that he gave life to his mechanical side, rather than letting the mechanics turn him stiff and harsh. The soul she'd once seen exude such warmth was slowly choking on the circumstances that kept demanding more of his augmented self. He was slowly healing, and she was grateful for it, but once again his life had taken a turn for the worse and this time it was her fault. How was she going to look him in the eye after all of this?

She suddenly felt that the room was too small and she excused herself, garnering a worried glance from David that he was too distracted to maintain. He only nodded in a short jerk and continued to feed a wire through Adam's brachial artery and into the arch of his heart.

For nearly three days they stayed with Tong and his Harvesters, and when the time was up and both Tong and David were sure Adam was going to live, they shook hands like civilized businessmen and parted ways. Tong even helped smuggle Adam back through Hengsha to the VTOL and used his contacts in the police to smooth out the legal kinks. Lee Sr. would not have freedom to bother Malik or Adam ever again.

"What deal did you strike, David?" Malik asked softly, standing across from him in the VTOL as he strapped Adam in and secured the blankets and IV keeping him through his induced coma. David paused, resting his hands on the edge of Adam's cot. He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Let's just go home, Faridah," he said wearily.

Malik pressed her lips together, but she turned to the cockpit anyway and fell into the routine of flight checks. She wasn't content with the lack of transparency, but she was deeply weary and it could wait. All that mattered at that point was leaving Hengsha. All that mattered was going home.

For the first time since his emergency shut down, Adam opened his eyes in the back of the VTOL just as David disappeared inside Sarif to call his lawyers. Malik was sitting with him, holding his hand and resting her forehead against his shoulder as she waited for the medics to arrive and get him inside and perform final checks so he could go home. She wanted to be prepared for what he'd think, what he'd say when he woke up, but her grief and weariness were simply too much and she just rest there, nearly unconscious herself when his fingers twitched in hers.

She shot suddenly upright, blinking away tears and exhaustion. She sat forward eagerly, searching his face. "Adam?" She felt suddenly breathless, the doctor's threat of brain damage surging brow furrowed and he opened his eyes, blinking slowly as his retinas adjusted to the low light of very early sun was coming up, but it was not visible yet beyond the skyline and a grey-tinted-gold filtered through the cool air. His eyes flashed as the sensors recalibrated and he turned his head, looking at her. For a long moment she didn't see recognition there, and she held her breath, barely aware of how hard she was squeezing his hand.

"Malik?" he rasped finally, and it was simply too much. She broke down sobbing, gasping into his shoulder as she choked on her apology and her relief. She could feel him try to sit up and she pulled back, shaking her head and sniffing, trying to get herself under control enough to be intelligible.

"No, don't. You've been in a coma for days the modifications David was forced to make sucked you almost dry—we thought—"she swallowed and shook her head, her brow twisting with anguish. "Adam, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."

Adam looked alarmed, and slowly he managed to prop himself on his side so he could look at her better, so he could reach across and wipe away her tears with a warm thumb. He cupped her jaw gently and she wondered how anyone could complain about the touch of metal when it could be so forgiving. "Malik, no—how is this your fault?"

Her heart skipped a beat and she gripped his wrist, almost desperately. "You—you don't remember?"

He huffed a weak laugh. "I remember knocking out two bouncers for you and getting shoved into an alleyway. I remember you kissing me in that alleyway and then dodging police cams for the rest of our visit." He smiled wryly, stroking her cheekbone with his thumb when she gave him a watery smile. "I remember Pritchard giving me crap for a week about the whole thing." His hand moved to her shoulder and he squeezed, his expression earnest and suddenly somber. "And I remember getting justice for a woman—and an unborn child—who were murdered. The men who captured us, the damage _they_ did, that was them. You are not and will never be responsible for their actions. I helped you voluntarily, Faridah. And I don't regret it." He gripped her shoulder a little tighter and locked their gazes. "_Never_ apologize for defending people who can't defend themselves. Never apologize for justice."

Malik let out a shaky breath and felt more tears streak her cheeks, but she managed to nod. "I was so scared," she breathed, unsure of why she was admitting. Maybe she was too tired to fight it. "I really thought I was going to lose you, maybe lose David too all because I couldn't stop digging."

"You didn't," Adam assured her gently slipping his hand down her arm and lacing their fingers together. "You won't."

She smiled weakly and leaned forward until their foreheads were touching, closing her eyes and returning his grip. "I'm holding you to that, spy boy."

* * *

Xiǎo huǒ: Google Translate tells me this is Chinese for "Little fire" As for the deal David made, maybe that'll be a fic for another time.


End file.
